Major Japanese Official Declares That He Does Not Trust The Deal With North Korea

A major Japanese official has expressed his distrust with Trump’s deal with North Korea. I sense that this whole ‘deal’ is going to fragment and break apart. As we read in a report from the Mainichi:

If the United States chooses to proceed with negotiations on the elimination of North Korea’s intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBM) capable of reaching the U.S. mainland, Japan’s geopolitical position could become worse than now. Future talks between Washington and Pyongyang are likely to substantially affect Tokyo’s national security policy.

A senior Japanese Foreign Ministry official did not sound positive about the outcome of the summit. “I still cannot believe the meeting actually took place, and I am skeptical about the realization of denuclearization.” The official’s remark is a reflection of North Korea’s repeated failures to keep past promises on eliminating its nuclear weapons program. Pyongyang voiced its intention to denuclearize in the 1994 framework agreement with the United States and in the joint statement in 2005 of the Six-Party Talks involving its neighbors and the United States.

Hiroyasu Akutsu, senior fellow at the National Institute for Defense Studies at the Ministry of Defense, expressed concern about the fact that the joint statement signed by Trump and Kim on June 12 did not include any deadline for achieving denuclearization. “It’s possible that negotiations for denuclearization will be used to buy time for the continuation of nuclear and missile development,” he said.